Breaking down claim that US has secret $150T 'trust fund'

Yahoo

23-04-2025

In March 2025, a rumor emerged on multiple platforms, including Bluesky (archived), X (archived) and Reddit (archived), that the U.S. had an untouched $150 trillion "national trust fund" or "endowment" waiting to be tapped into, thanks to a key provision in Title 30 of the U.S. Code (30 U.S.C.).
Jim Rickards, a financial commentator who reportedly worked on Wall Street for 35 years, made the assertion during a promotional interview posted in February 2025, though the claim goes back at least as far as 2013.
Rickards publishes a financial newsletter called "Strategic Intelligence," where he made the claim in a featured video. We reached out to Rickards for comment on the claim's veracity and will update this story if we receive any response.
"Decades ago, the U.S. Congress inserted a key provision in 30 U.S.C. creating what one could call a 'national trust fund.' You can go read the sections 22 to 42 to be exact … it's pretty dry stuff," Rickards said in the video. "It's been this big secret for years. Yet over time, the estimated size of this fund has grown and grown to the point where its raw value sits near $150 trillion and counting."
Title 30 involves mineral lands and mining, which includes oil, gas, salts, precious metals and other materials. Rickards claimed that the 42nd Congress, under then-President Ulysses S. Grant, changed 30 U.S.C., thus establishing this "secret trust." He also claimed that "it all ties to a pivotal decision made by Trump's Supreme Court," and when the money "is unleashed … as soon as this summer … it will silence Trump's most outspoken critics." This Supreme Court decision involved broader access for mining in lieu of environmental protections that "locked up" this "trust fund."
Rickards' statements appeared to echo a long-standing claim made by the Institute for Energy Research, which wrote in a 2013 report (archived) that "the government owns an enormously large mineral estate (oil, natural gas, and coal resources) that has an estimated total worth to the economy of over $150 trillion." According to Influence Watch, fuel companies such as ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute financially support the IER.
It is important to note, too, that Rickards isn't necessarily an impartial adviser; although he claims "We don't have any sponsors or backers in a traditional sense," he sells a newsletter that provides subscribers with market predictions.
(profitablenews.com)
In the newsletter video, he claimed five specific mineral-rights companies "are about to soar" (meaning companies he suggested his viewers buy stocks in), but didn't name the companies outright. A viewer would have to request a copy of a report he claimed his research team compiled called "THE AMERICAN BIRTHRIGHT: How to Claim Your Share of America's $150 Trillion Mineral Endowment." He said the report was available free as long as "you join forces and take a look at my work."
(Paradigm Newsletters)
It should also be noted that Rickards did not make these claims in an impartial interview setting. For example, the "interviewer," Aaron Gentzler, primarily lent credibility to Rickards' claims with comments such as, "All that sounds incredible," "A number this big … it's unfathomable" and "I've got to say that sounds great, on paper." Additionally, the transcript (archived) of the conversation appeared to have been prewritten. It included supplemental links, images, charts and formatting that went beyond the scripted conversation. (Any added formatting to quotes we feature below comes directly from this transcript in question.)
A number of news releases appeared online after Rickards published the video. Rickards wrote all of them.
Below, we break down each of Rickards' claims, including whether the 42nd Congress established a "secret trust" of mineral wealth and whether a Supreme Court decision will unleash the now reportedly $150 trillion of American mineral wealth.
Rickards didn't provide specific information, such as exactly what changes the 42nd Congress made that established a "secret trust." He noted that he was not referring to an actual trust fund or endowment, but that he used those terms to "make the most sense to viewers." He said:
The last time the government allowed regular Americans to tap into our vast endowment was 1872.
That's when Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant changed Title 30 of the U.S. Code and established this secret trust for the American people.
What happened was this: In 1872, following the peak of the Gold Rush, the 42nd Congress passed a law called the General Mining Act of 1872, which legalized the practice of acquiring and protecting mining claims on public lands. Congress had granted the right to mine silver, gold, cinnabar (an ore of mercury) and copper in 1866, but the 1872 law expanded this right by changing the wording to include "or other valuable deposits." It began:
https://media.snopes.com/2025/04/general_mining_act_of_1872.pdf
The "$150 trillion" estimate (which apparently originated with the Institute for Energy Research) is just that, an estimated value of mineral wealth available for extraction on federal land, adjusted for inflation. Rickards did not name a source or provide proof for this figure.
As Rickards claimed, this law does make up sections 22-42 of 30 U.S.C. He claimed environmental bureaucracy tied up this mineral wealth — "Obama and Biden chose to protect plants … birds … and fish instead of protecting and enriching the American public" — and cited an unnamed "former Department of the Interior insider" who he claimed said: "[We have] all these essential materials right under our feet. Incredibly, insanely, however, the United States is the only nation in the world that locks them up."
Rickards cited findings from a think tank called the Capital Research Center, which published a report in 2020 on "the consequences of locking up American mineral wealth."
(Capital Research Center)
This report (archived) claimed an area "larger than that of 25 of the 27 states east of the Mississippi River is no longer accessible for mineral exploration, much less mining" and that the "drawn-out mining permitting processes and burdensome environmental lawsuits" were two major factors preventing access to this domestic mineral wealth. However, it claimed the biggest and most underreported factor is "public land withdrawals," or increasingly limiting mining access on federal or state lands.
The Capital Research Center claims on its About page to be tax-exempt and "fiercely independent." We reached out to the organization for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.
Trump elevated the importance of mineral wealth early in his second term; he announced an executive order titled "Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production" on March 20, 2025. The order mentioned the Mining Act of 1872, and it required various government bodies to identify federal lands known to hold mineral deposits and reserves.
(whitehouse.gov)
In regard to "unlocking" this mineral wealth, Rickards claimed the Trump administration would make it happen. When Gentzler prompted Rickards in the video interview by claiming Trump "failed to unlock this $150 trillion endowment" during his first term, Rickards answered that that was because "Trump was sabotaged from Day One fighting 'the fake Russian hoax,' a 'fake' impeachment trial," the COVID pandemic and the "collapse of the stock market and economy." Gentzler responded: "So he never had a chance to do things HIS way," to which Rickards agreed and pointed to a pivotal Supreme Court decision that would change this.
The Supreme Court decision Rickards referred to is the June 2024 decision to overturn a 40-year-old precedent — the Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. decision of 1984 — that directed courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous laws.
In overturning the decision, the Supreme Court handed the ability to determine ambiguous language from administrative agencies to courts, using the "plain meaning" of statutory interpretation.
Public Policy Institute of California senior fellow Brian Gray, a retired environmental law professor, said in July 2024 that he was "concerned that future decisions will pay less attention to both the scientific realities that underlie our environmental laws and the agency expertise that enables these laws to function in the real world."
Contrary to Rickards' exaggerated imagery of $150 trillion being enough to distribute $1.1 million to every household in America, that's not how revenue from public lands works. Although Rickards clarified in the interview that he didn't "think any of this is going to happen," the quote without context is misleading.
(pro.paradigmnewsletters.org)
In reality, the government distributes revenue from public lands across several specific funds, local governments or government agencies. Companies, perhaps such as the ones Rickards suggested his viewers invest in, pay the government to extract energy and minerals on federal lands, Native American lands and the Outer Continental Shelf. The payments these companies make include bonuses, rents and royalties. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue then collects these payments and distributes them to the following recipients, as listed by the U.S. Department of the Interior (archived):
Historic Preservation Fund: This fund helps preserve U.S. historical and archaeological sites and cultural heritage. This fund supports grants to state and tribal historic preservation offices.
Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF): This fund provides matching grants to states and local governments to buy and develop public outdoor recreation areas across the 50 states. The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) (Gulf of America) of 2006 specifies that 12.5% of revenues from certain Gulf of America leases be directed to the LWCF stateside program. States can receive up to $125 million a year in funding. This portion of LWCF funds is not subject to the congressional appropriation process. Otherwise, they are treated similarly to regular LWCF funds.
Native American Tribes and Individuals: ONRR disburses 100% of revenue collected from resource extraction on Native American lands back to Native American tribes, nations, and individuals.
Other: Certain funds are directed back to the federal agencies that administer these lands to help cover the agencies' operational costs. Agencies that receive funds include: BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service. The Ultra-Deepwater Research Program and the Mescal Settlement Agreement also receive $50 million each.
Reclamation Fund: Established by Congress in 1902 to pay for Bureau of Reclamation projects. This fund supports the establishment of critical infrastructure projects like dams and power plants.
State and Local Governments: Funds disbursed to states fall under the jurisdiction of each state. Each state determines how the funds will be used.
U.S. Treasury: Funds disbursed to the Treasury go to the General Fund, which is the federal government's basic operating fund. The General Fund pays for roughly two-thirds of all federal expenditures, including the U.S. military, national parks, and schools.
Rickards sells subscriptions to his market prediction newsletter for financial gain, and his claims are often sensational and misleading. He quoted the $150 trillion figure without citing any sources, credible or otherwise, and directed viewers to his own investment recommendations for mineral-rights companies poised to benefit from the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Chevron decision. "I'm talking about the businesses who get a jump on this, and the regular folks who know how to take advantage," Rickards said.
Although there is a possibility the court's decision and Trump's March 2025 executive order to increase American mineral production will yield an increase in domestic mineral revenue in the U.S., the predictions Rickards made are purely speculative and the revenue generated by mineral extraction is not distributed to individual households, but to specific funds, local governments or government agencies. Rickards himself clarified that it was not a "trust fund," per se, but that he used that term in order to make the most sense to viewers.
AMERICA'S SECRET TRUST FUND. https://pro.paradigmnewsletters.org/p/awn_birthright_0325/PAWN5331/Full?h=true. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.
Federal Land Withdrawals: Endangering the Nation. https://capitalresearch.org/article/federal-land-withdrawals-part-1/. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.
https://revenuedata.doi.gov/?tab=tab-disbursements. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
'Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production'. The White House, 20 Mar. 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/immediate-measures-to-increase-american-mineral-production/.
read, Ex-CIA Jim Rickards 3. min. 'The Asset Washington Couldn't Touch: Former Pentagon Insider Reveals the $150 Trillion Fortune That Survived Generations of Political Greed'. Yahoo Finance, 17 Apr. 2025, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asset-washington-couldn-t-touch-140000321.html.
'U.S. Code: Title 30 — MINERAL LANDS AND MINING'. LII / Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/30. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.
'{{meta.pageTitle}}'. {{meta.siteName}}, https://www.oyez.org/cases/1983/82-1005. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.